Wealth Creep: you'll be surprized how this affects your perfect lottery prize amount

Is this lottery prize the perfect amount you need to keep you financially happy?   Photo: California Lottery

Financial experts say the more you have, the more you need. I call it "wealth creep."

It means that no matter how much you earn or obtain, it's human nature to want more wealth. And so the amount 'creeps' up, always beyond reach.

  • A recent survey asked those earning $50,000/yr how much more they needed to make them happy. They replied that it was $75,000/yr.

  • And millionaires say they needed twice as much as they had now. So that's $2 million to keep them satisfied.

It seems the magic figure - the wealth creep number - is always just a little more than you have at the time.

But there actually is a limit., a ceiling to the amount that most people need in order to have everything they want in life.

I'm reliably told that for most people it starts at $5 million.

So unless you want the vast purchase price and overheads investment in a Lear jet or massive mansion (which most of us wouldn't be comfortable acquiring anyhow), that $5 million amount will make most people happy.

The best option is to play games with a jackpot that is the exact amount, or a combination of several smaller wins.

If you select a game with that amount as the jackpot prize, then your odds of winning will be hugely improved.